Hi Joe, loving your blog so far. How is revelate designs stuff when it comes to being waterproof? I am about to buy Viscacha and I am ordering full frame bag as well. Also what would you rather recommend (Harness or Soft Roll) when it comes to taking tent/sleeping bag in the front? Thanks!

Hey Damian, thanks for dropping in and for your kind words. The Revelate bags for sure are _not_ waterproof. They can shed a bit of light drizzle, but in any kind of downpour will get saturated and let in moisture. My usual strategy is just to wrap my sleepingbag in a grocery bag and stuff it into the saddlebag. The camera and electronics also go in plastic inside the front bag. Clothing is in the cuben fiber sack (which is waterproof), and everything else I don’t much care if it gets wet. I’m pretty sure Eric at Revelate doesn’t represent his gear as waterproof; but I think you’ll be really pleased with it. The Viscacha, especially, is a really refined bag.

I’ve only ever used the hardness system and it works for me. In the past, I’ve carried tent/poles/sleepingbag/pad in the front harness and clothing in the Viscacha. They’ve switched position in part because taking the saddle bag off and on if I’m staying at a hostal or something was a bit more fiddly than I wanted. Carrying clothing in the harness seemed a quick solution.

I sure like the look of the soft roll, but, apologies, I can’t say anything about it. Maybe if there is another reader who uses it, they can jump in here.

That’s a really nice setup. It’s always interesting to me (especially as a bag maker myself) how different each of our setups are. I’m mulling over making a Cuben Fiber sack to see how it works. Oh… really nice bike by the way. How’s the folding aspect of it work?

Sorry to add another comment… sadly, can’t edit. Anyway, most of us bag builders say that if you really want to keep something from getting wet, put it inside of a dry bag or plastic bag and then put it in your bikepacking gear. The XPac is pretty water resistant but as they get dirtier and take on oil/grease they almost tend to absorb moisture. The one good thing is that as soon as it’s above freezing and the sun hits them they also shed moisture very quickly.